The first thing that you see when you pick up a magazine is the cover. Consequently, it is the most important part of the magazine, and serves a number of purposes. It must attract, because if it is dull, then nobody will pick it up off the shelf. It does this with bright, vibrant colours, and a unique style, so it is not likened to any other magazine After that, it must say whether it is for male or female readers, or indeed, trans-gender. To do this, it does not necessarily have to use words, i.e. "for boys" etc., but colours, shapes, patterns, the kind of pictures on the front and, on closer inspection, the articles can tell the reader who the magazine is aimed at. The name and details of the articles and the pictures on the front of the magazine are both equally important. If an article is about, say, "a boy-bagging quiz" then it is very clear that the magazine is aimed at girls. The pictures on the front are important too, but they are sometimes not as helpful in identifying the magazine and the gender that it is aimed at. This is because both boys magazines and girls magazines can have girls, or boys on their front covers. The reason for this lies in the interests of different genders, and these will be discussed in the actual case studies of the two magazines I have chosen.
             The second area of study of the magazines is the contents page. This contains listings of all the articles and features in the magazine. It is very important because before people will buy a magazine, they will want to know what they can read about once they have actually bought it. Apart from the text in the contents telling you what there is and where to find it, there are other things that you can look out for which are in the contents pages for a reason. Pictures in the contents are just as important as the words because they can tell you about articles too, and they are often bigger so that you see them first and read the article ...